Avaliação dos níveis de aglutininas antileptospira em cães de caça na Paraíba, Brasil* Evaluation of anti-leptospire agglutinines leves in hunt dogs in the Paraíba, Brazil

Among the domestic animals, in urban level, the dogs represent the main source of human leptospire infection for they often live in company of man. Dogs tend to eliminate living leptospira throug their urine during some months without showing any clinical sign. Hunt dogs constitute company animals that they are used in search of by followers of the sporting activity of hunt wild species in the rural way, being this, a common practice in several areas of Brasil. This research aims to evaluate the antileptospira agglutinines levels in hunt dogs in state of Paraiba, Brasil. Were collected 190 blood samples the dogs, proceeding from 11 cities, being 172 (90,53%) males and 18 (9,74%) females with ages varying of 6 months to 15 years. The blood samples were processed according to the Microscopic Agglutination Technique (MAT) in the Contagious Diseases Laboratory ‐ CSTR/ Campus VII/UFPB. After resultads it was observed the prevalence of 8,95% of the samples with prominence for the following serovars: autumnalis, bratislava e australis.